This invention relates generally to mounting accessories on the exterior of road and off-road terrain vehicles, such as automobiles, and specifically to an accessory latching arrangement and method of latching that utilizes an accessory mounting structure which is permanently secured to a road or off-road terrain vehicle. (The term "road" vehicle as used hereinafter is meant to include off-road terrain vehicles, but not aircraft or water vessels.)
It is common to mount exterior accessories to an automobile or other road vehicle. There are several problems that are associated with such mounting. For one there often is a requirement that there be an electrical pass-through from the vehicle to the accessory. Accessories such as exteriorly mounted driving lights, emergency lighting systems, antennas and vehicle telecommunication or transponder systems typically do require such pass-through.
Another problem is that the static and dynamic loading expected by reason of a road vehicle accessory will be transmitted to the vehicle for support. This extra loading will be due to the weight and expected interaction of the accessory itself with air at the speed of operation, and the same factors with respect to the load. The accessory must be so mounted to the road vehicle that the necessary vehicular support will be provided for both it and its expected load.
By reason of these and other problems those in the art typically have focused on providing the necessary securance and feed-through with the particular requirements of a specific accessory in mind. For example, roof racks for skis, bicycles, luggage cases or other loads to be secured on a road vehicle are often designed to be secured to aspects of the vehicle, such as rain gutters, openable doors, trunk lids, etc., which will provide the necessary structural support and rigidity. While some roof racks are only secured to a vehicle exterior body panel or "skin", racks of this nature often are limited in capacity or are only decorative.
The permanent securance of an accessory to the exterior of a road vehicle often has undesirable consequences. For example, many emergency vehicles, e.g., law enforcement vehicles, are sold for general use after it is believed their useful life as emergency vehicles is finished. In general, however, an emergency vehicle of this type requires one or more externally mounted accessories, such as warning lights, etc. Various steps have been taken to permit these accessories to be removed from the emergency vehicle without visible damage, to enable the same to be converted to general usage. For example, reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,934,752 which describes an emergency vehicle accessory mounting arrangement relying on piercing a vehicular roof in a manner that a sun roof can be used to replace the warning equipment accessory when the vehicle is converted to general use. One other consequence is that when a permanently mounted emergency vehicle warning accessory is provided, the entire vehicle must be taken out of service when the warning accessory needs to be repaired. U.S. Pat. No. 3,863,999 discusses this problem and teaches as a solution, the provision of a warning device which is removable from the vehicle for repair and/or replacement.